[OP: "Soldier, Poet, King"--The Oh Hellos]

Lee did think to grab Zokei's arms before that so she couldn't make hand signs.

"Ah, don't hurt me!" she cried when she woke up.

Ino steadied herself against Jugo before standing up. "We're lucky that worked."

"Easy, sis," Camie said to Zokei. "Zip it, okay? We're not gonna hurt you, as long as you just help us out here. We took you prisoner so they won't hold you responsible for it. Just tell them we had, like, a bajillion weapons and jutsu and crap later. Or we'll have to K.O. you right now, like we did with your fiancé."

"Is he okay?" Zokei asked.

"He'll be fine, except perhaps have a headache," Lee said. "But, I didn't hit him hard enough to really do actual damage. Only the first gate."

"What?" Zokei said.

"Nevermind," Ino said. "Take us to where they have the Kage and his family."

"You won't like that," Zokei said. "I don't know how he is now, but he can't be well if all this happened."

"You realize that he is the one who kicked us out before?" Jugo said, flatly. "I think we are less concerned for him personally than we are for the Village and the innocent people in it. There's nothing about this condition that should distress us that much. Though I don't enjoy people's suffering--anymore."

"Aw, you never enjoyed it, bro." Camie patted his arm lightly. "That was just the devil juice stuff inside you."

Jugo smiled faintly, as if he recognized now that Camie meant this to be comforting.

None of it made sense to Zokei, but she shrugged. "Fine. I warned you. The rest of it is in your own hands. Try to look as if I'm escorting you as prisoners. If anyone asks, it was on the boss's orders."

They nodded to that.

* * *

So what had happened to Sakura?

By the time the others were all doing the things mentioned above, she had been taken somewhere while blindfolded. Once the bandits had caught her they'd had no trouble restraining her.

Sakura had only just had time to release her Mitotic Regeneration Jutsu that made her basically invulnerable.

The trouble for her was that she had used up a significant amount of her reserves in the War, and she had only been working on this jutsu for a few years, unlike Tsunade, so she had far less reserves to being with. Which meant she'd time out in probably less than...oh...8 hours.

Maybe not if she didn't try to do anything else while using it...

She wasn't sure if she could keep it up long enough to escape.

It was funny, really, though, that the bandits took the only person who used Earth Style out of their captives to the one part of their newly-taken territory that was completely underground.

Sakura was sure they took her down some kind of steps, and that she was going farther under, because the air felt cold and still... She'd never been underground like this for very long, just a few times on missions... She wasn't as afraid of it as some people are, but neither did she like it. She'd be lost for sure; she had no sensory powers.

Not for the first time, Sakura began to berate herself for not having a remotely useful jutsu other than medical... Anyone else would have had a better chance of freeing themselves than she would!

(Which was not quite true. Jugo had far less chance, and Lee was only about the same as her. But that wouldn't have comforted her anyway.)

The trip really was only a few minutes though. The bandits moved through the earth like it was water more than dirt, and then they were stopping.

"Don't let her see anything," said one in a rough voice.

"Hey, what's this?" said another, and Sakura thought they must have had a lamp now because she saw something through the blindfold, and they appeared to be surrounding her now. "What's this black seal marking on her face?"

"Not just her face." One moved her arm, to her chagrin.

"Think it's anywhere else?" said another in a nasty tone.

"Oh, shut up," said the first voice. "Don't run your mouth like that, Mandrake."

Sakura suspected that was a nickname--at least it had better be one.

Did bandits have code names? She didn't know. She'd never studied them.

She bet Momo would have known...or Shine, who knew everything.

But thinking of people who knew stuff reminded her of her sensei.

"Where is Tsunade-sama?" she suddenly said.

"Tsunade--" they said and then broke off.

"Oh, wait, I know," said the second voice. "The seal...that's the same as that old biddy's. It will make her invulnerable...for a bit. She's using it to fight off the poison."

"Clever," said the first one, not in a very sincere tone. "I think that Tsunade person used the same thing."

Used?

Sakura paled.

"Well, I haven't seen her," said the other. "Maybe it worked."

"Maybe."

So they didn't know if she was dead? Sakura almost wanted to let out a sigh of relief...except that she wished she knew the answer then.

So where had Sasuke gone? She was only slightly surprised that he'd not bothered to help her--when would he ever?... At least, since a year ago.

But she was a little surprised he'd just gotten away. He could have taken them all, but if he had, they wouldn't be here, so some of them had clearly run from him--and he hadn't chased them? That part was what didn't make any sense. Wouldn't he have wanted to make sure no one told on him?

That made her mad, and she told herself it was not that she was disappointed that he still hadn't helped her. No, she was past that. But it was sloppy, and that was pretty unforgivable too, at such a time.

At least telling herself that made her not want to cry, which she certainly would have wanted to if she dwelt on the fact that no one was likely to come find her. Even if they wanted to--and at the moment, she felt that no one other than Naruto would have--they couldn't have. Right?

Could they?

"You can let her see now," said the first voice.

Someone tore the blindfold off.

"Yep, the marks are all over her face." The first bandit was a man who didn't look quite as mean as the other two, more businesslike.

"Well, she does have a mouth," said the third one. "Ask her."

"Good idea. Listen, girl, what was your name again?" said the first.

Sakura was going to answer but then thought better of it. Didn't they already know?

"It's Haruno, all right," said the second. "I was near the medical division long enough in the War to know. Besides, no one could mistake that hair."

Sakura felt as if she reddened.

"True," said the first. "And that's the seal I saw on Tsunade-sama's face, too. Even if it was from a  distance, you wouldn't forget something like that. But, as long as it's just healing, there's nothing to worry about."

They now opened some kind of door in the ground.

Sakura wondered how deep under they were.

Another bandit opened the door.

"Bones?" they said.

All these nicknames were so crass, she thought.

Anything to keep her from thinking of the situation itself.

She figured at least they couldn't kill her, right? But...what would they do then?

On the other hand, maybe she should be worried about it. She could die, so...but could she move?

She tried to, with her arms. The regeneration jutsu only seemed to help it slightly. She could move a bit, but it still hurt, and it wasn't getting any better, maybe just not worse.

"Don't twitch," said the third bandit--Mandrake, she guessed. "It makes us excited when people try to twitch away."

She stopped moving.

"Hello, Scorpion," said Bones, apparently.

Sakura supposed one of them would be Wolf or Bear or Viper next.

"Who did you bag this time?" said Scorpion.

"At first I didn't think it was much," said Bones, "but this one is a medic. The prodigy of that old lady. She's no good anymore, so this was fortuitous timing."

"And she was alone?" said Scorpion.

"No, that demon of a Uchiha was with her," Bones said. "But not to worry, he ran off to chase some others--they might be dead now, but, we gave him the slip, and he won't get out of this Village alive if they have a chance to cut him."

"For all I've heard of the Uchiha, that would be a pretty low chance," Scorpion said. "What if he follows you?"

"Not possible. We used Earth, and he had no Earth Style or he'd have used it, that was obvious," Boen said. "This wench here might have a little--but nothing to us. At least she seems pretty strong, but, no skill."

Sakura reddened again.

"Fine then," Scorpion said. "I guess she's here now. Maybe she can fix something....What's that seal on her?"

"Makes her immune to injury," Bones said.

"Did you test that?" Scorpion asked.

"No..." Bones said, as if that idea had never occurred to him. "But we've heard of it, and the old bag is just the same."

"I've heard tell of that," Scorpion replied, opening the door wider. "But think about it--this little rat isn't nearly as experienced as her. Maybe it won't work for her the same way. And a smarter person would have tested it. She'll be more trouble if you can't harm her."

"Granted, but don't you think we've got her enough at our mercy," Bone said.

"Not in the least," Scorpion said. "I don't like to leave any room in a prisoner's mind for imagination, and she's hearing us all, you idiot. Unless she's deaf as well."

Sakura gave him no sign that she wasn't, but it didn't matter.

The bandits pushed her farther into their hideout.

Really, it looked more like a garden shed made of rock than it did a hideout. It had random tools lining the sides of it, and lamps lit the area dimly.

A few other bandits were lounging around lazily.

They looked at Sakura with interest, but not a nice kind, she thought. Like she was a pig about to be butchered.

Except one.

One, who was a woman, looked up at her and gave almost a start, then she sat back against the wall as if she'd had the energy go out of her.

Such a reaction would have puzzled Sakura more if she'd had time to dwell on it, but she didn't.

The bandits led her through a low doorway that got bigger for themselves when they passed under-ward--nearly hit her in the head, but she was just a little too fast.

This room was even smaller. Clearly it was just used to keep things in--or people.

"You probably won't stay here for long," said Bones to Sakura, roughly enough. "But for now, nowhere else to put you."

"Don't baby her, Bones," Scorpion said. "She's lucky she's not getting killed right now... Someone tell the boss that we've got her."

One of the other bandits, who must have been more of a lackey, got up and left the hideout at once.

 Bones then put Sakura's feet into one of those chakra-blocking cuffs.

Thankfully it did not turn off her Regeneration Jutsu, since it was already flowing... It just made her foot feel like a block of wood.

"You can't break out of that," he said. "So don't try. Just hurt yourself..."

"I said not to baby her," Scorpion said, with a frown.

"Well, you don't want her to try to escape," Bones said, flatly. "Honestly, why do you think any show of intelligence is babying someone, Scorpion? You're not right in the head."

"Don't you tell me that!" Scorpion said, with a look that made Sakura think that Bones was right about him. "Don't you ever tell me that, Bones. You war-bandits think you're so much better than the rest of us, but we all do just the same work, and you're not any less of a rogue than we are. And you just remember this if you want to sleep comfortably at night."

"All right, all right, no need to get offended." Bones seemed not to want to provoke the crazy man. "I was just joshing you."

But Scorpion continued to mutter angrily to himself for several seconds after that.

"Hey," Mandrake said, "I know what will cheer up Scorpion--we can test that jutsu of hers right now. See if she's invincible or not."

"How would you test that?" Bones asked, a little uneasily.

"Nothing anyone as soft as you would do," Mandrake said. "But I'm not against a little experimentation."

He took out a knife, and before Sakura could even think to try to dodge, he'd sliced her across her arms--which already hurt enough, but somehow the pain was worse.

It was as if the poison was making her nerves more sensitive.

Of course, though, it healed almost instantly.

"Hey, that's not bad," Scorpion said, cheering up at once. "Nice trick. Hey, girl, can you teach us that?"

Sakura was affronted at the idea--and scared, but more affronted, she told herself.

"No," she said, haughtily--at least she hoped it was haughty.

It wasn't the most clever response, but her pure defiance seemed to make them mad.

"This prisoner is a little stuck up," Scorpion said. "Let's take her down a few pegs. I can't have a prisoner who's cheeky. They give endless trouble."

"Seems more like she's just trying to look tough," Bones said.

"If you don't like it, Bones, just leave," Mandrake said. "You know we've got to tame the wild ones. The boss said it. Let them cool off a bit, but we don't have time to starve her into submission, so we'll have to get creative."

Bones left the room.

Sakura missed him at once. She didn't like him at all, but he was better than the others were.

And she felt that even more, because the two cruel bandits proceeded to experiment with injuring her multiple times to see if she would heal every time.

Aside from how much it hurt--which was a lot--it was making Sakura feel more and more dubious the longer they did it, because she knew it was using up more of her reserves every time she had to heal super fast. And she couldn't turn it off, not now. And if she did, they might actually kill her before they knew it.

They brought in a bigger weapon like a sword to see if that would work, and once they confirmed that she really would heal every time, they said they were impressed with her jutsu.

But then they said that she didn't know how to make use of it, or she would never have been captured.

Sakura maybe shouldn't have minded what some crazy bandits said about her, but it didn't make her feel more sure of herself... She felt dejected.

She was pathetic, she knew it. Why, anyone else who was involved would have been able to fight them off. Why was she so useless?

It felt like forever before they got tired of their new party game and decided to leave her to--well, not recover, as she already had, but to think about what they'd do to her once she ran out of chakra.

But no matter. Sakura thought she'd just die once that happened. This jutsu needed to be turned off before it maxed out, or you'd fall into a coma most likely.

She was left alone for maybe 20 minutes, and she heard the bandits talking in the other room. But then some of them seemed to leave, and it got quieter.

The doorway had closed itself once they left, but it left a thin slit so they could see her or hear her if she somehow managed to get free.

But suddenly it opened again, just about a 30 cm by 1.5 meter slit, and someone slipped in.

They were a much smaller bandit, and slightly built so they could easily do this where the others couldn't have.

[Masked Ami design made using LoveNikki]

Sakura looked up and realized it was the woman who'd given her the strange look.

She'd been partially masked before, just up past her mouth and over her nose, like Kakashi, but now she pulled it off.

[Ami Unmasked image made using LoveNikki]

The only light in here was one wall sconce, so it was hard to see her, but Sakura thought she had a nice enough face, pretty in the sort of simple way that the Stone Shinobi tended to be--nothing flashy or showy about her appearance and makeup.

She also was older than Sakura expected for how small she was. She must have been in her 30s at least.

The door closed behind her till only the small slit was in the top, and it wouldn't let out much sound.

Sakura half thought she was going to get tortured again--and by what this time she had no idea--but instead the woman pulled out a bag and held out what looked oddly like a food pill to her.

"That seal must take up a lot of chakra," she said in a voice that was softer than any Stone shinobi Sakura had heard. Almost velvety. 

It took Sakura off guard, because they were all such hard, harsh people usually that she didn't think of them as capable of being soft or gentle.

And then she was wary of it... No way this wasn't a trick, even she could see that.

"You think I'm that naive?" she said, in a sharp tone. "I'm not taking that."

"I can't blame you," the woman replied very mildly. "I wouldn't take it if I were you. We're at a kind of impasse, aren't we? Because I know this is actually not a trick, but you think it is, and you have every reason to. And how are we supposed to resolve this?"

She paused. 

"Would it help if I told you I'm sympathic to your plight?"

"That sounds like what anyone who was tricking me would say," Sakura said, bitterly enough. "Did they send you in here to soften me up?"

"They are not the type of men who'd think of that," the woman said, with an air of disgust. "I've never been stationed with anyone I disliked more, if that helps."

Somehow, how she described them reminded Sakura of Shine. The motherly disdain for their bad behavior.

Somehow, it was a little reassuring.

"Well, who are you?" she asked, a little less frigidly.

"My code name is Badger because I'm good with the tunnels," the woman said. "But, I never did like it, so you can call me Ami."

"Is that your real name?" Sakura asked.

"Yes," Ami said.

["Ami", depending on how you spell it, has many meanings: "beauty", "grace", "favor", and some websites said that if you put an "i"  in it, it will mean "beloved". That was the meaning I intended. However, in Hebrew, it means "friend" (according to one site), which I also found appropriate. That would also be its Latin meaning.]

Sakura was surprised, but then she sighed. "I'm Sakura...but you probably knew that."

"I guessed as much," Ami said. "My husband told me about Sakura Haruno and Lady Tsunade. He was really excited to have such excellent medics for the War."

"Is he a bandit too?" Sakura said.

That must have been a sore point in some way, because Ami looked offended for a moment.

Then she looked down. "No," she said. "He's dead."

Pause.

Sakura realized suddenly that she'd meant he'd died in the war.

"Oh...I...uh...didn't realize," she said.

"I guess not," Ami said. "I guess that you'd assume he was a bandit, but he'd hate that. It took me for a moment. But never mind that part." She held out the food pill. "You're already poisoned. What can this do to make it worse?"

"Make it harder for me to heal," Sakura said.

"At this stage, young lady, you have little time anyway," Ami said. "Why not risk it?"

Sakura hesitated, then she held out her hand--it felt as heavy as lead, but she could just barely grasp the pill, and then she swallowed it.

To her relief, the effect of it appeared to be normal. A surge of energy went down her, and she felt a little better.

"If you were a normal person," Ami said, "that wouldn't have helped you. We've tried this on the others, and they only get worse when we gave it to them. But you seem able to control your chakra better than that, so I thought it might help. I hope at least it won't make it worse."

"You mean you didn't know?!" Sakura was a little mad.

"Hush," Ami said, glancing back at the door-slab. "I had to risk it, didn't I? Did you have a better idea?"

"Yes, you could let me go if you want to help me," Sakura said.

"And have my head cut off?" Ami asid. "That helps, doesn't it?"

She leaned on the wall now. "I can't let you go. But, when your friends and their God come and free you, will you tell them I helped you? A favor for a favor?"

"Come to... What do you mean?" Sakura said warily.

"There's a rumor that they're all just outside the walls of the city," Ami said, in her hushed voice. "I would have thought it was nothing, but my own son confirmed it."

"Your son?" Sakura said.

"I haven't seen him in weeks," Ami said, sounding angry now. "These fiends don't like us to meet and plot among ourselves, you know. But I try to leave him messages when I can--if he can find them--precious little, really. But one of his found me...came in some kind of strange ink creature... I thought it was a trick at first, but it sounded as if he was sure. Said that the Kazekage's party was here to save us all and he'd talked to one of them already."

"Hanabi..." Sakura said in a slow voice. "Wait...so you know that boy? The one she met here before?"

"I don't know what you mean," Ami said. "And I will not dare to say it. They can't hear us, but they could come closer at any second." She glanced towards the wall and frowned, then looked back at Sakura. "I figure you all trade favors, like anyone else. Granted, they said terrible things about your team. They said you have a witch and you practice dark arts."

"You know, the stupid thing about that," Sakura said, sick of hearing this rumor, "is that she says the same things about us. She says that all our arts harnessing darkness and summoning it are evil. And that she is the opposite of a witch."

"I can believe that," Ami said, surprising her. "Because if she was a witch, you would not have come back here unless you were in league with the bandits, and the boss would not have ordered your boss captured if you were. Though the Village may well assume that you're working with us, but I'm not a fool."

"Why on earth would we work with you?" Sakura said.

"My dear, don't you see that you coming back here will seem as if you used us to punish the Village for rejecting you?" Ami said. "I know all about it. I know more about you than some, even. I saw your team the day they arrived in Stone. From outside the walls."

Sakura remembered that Camie and Bakugo had mentioned seeing someone run over the rocks.

"That was you?!" she said.

"I was scouting," Ami said. "I'm good at that, light on my feet. I saw you all from a distance and didn't meddle with you then. It wasn't any of my business. The rumors followed your team, though, of what they did and what they could do. Our attacks mostly halted...and then my son's young street friends, who act as our outer runners--poor things don't really know what we are, or they do, but they need money and food--one of them, nice boy, Ryuji, maybe you met him."

"Yes..." Sakura didn't say that the last thing he'd done was ditch them and deny knowing them.

"Yes, sometimes he runs messages between me and my son when we can't do it ourselves," Ami said. "And he told me that your lady of the Sand had caught him and his friends in the market, and that your lady who acts as your teacher had heard about it and then had let him go and offered his mother a job... Those poor women...they didn't know their sons were working for us, I'm sure. It wasn't the kind of thing they would have told them, and they wouldn't have asked. I know because, at first, I didn't want to talk about it either."

She frowned again. "But things have a way of coming out."

Sakura was a little confused. Maybe her brain was just clouded from being tired, but she didn't get it. "But you never spoke to any of our group. They would have mentioned it if you did."

"And I never dared come closer to you," Ami said. "And the bandits wouldn't have let me. They kept most of us outside the Village while you were here. Just a few they let in. And they had a narrow shave, I heard. If Stone weren't such fools as to let them go, they'd have missed the whole invasion while they were in jail."

Sakura thought. "The ones that Bakugo fought?"

"I don't know. They were just the ones who were in jail," Ami said. "I work with a different set every week. The boss does it that way on purpose. Doesn't want us to form factions. I haven't worked with anyone who met any of you since last month, so I don't know. But I hear rumors. And some of the Stone we've taken prison have had something to say about it being your fault."

"Isn't that nice of them?" Testily.

" A few leaps in logic and it sounds believable," Ami said, "if you don't have any of the facts. But that's the way of Stone Village. I'm an Earth Shinobi myself, though not from the big Village. I know how my people are. Stiff-necked and hard-headed."

"You don't like your own people?"

"I liked them more before this," Ami said. "But, in my book, when someone helps you, you help them back. You don't drive them out of your Village. And I felt sure they'd live to regret it, even if we hadn't moved in then. Perhaps you all could have prevented it, but, as it stands, the Village won't recover from this for a long time. I pity them, but they asked for trouble. I think anyone who is kind to thieves must be an angel."

"Shine is not an angel," Sakura said with disdain, but then she softened a bit. "She's not as bad as I thought at first, but I don't understand her, and she's got a sharp tongue."

"Sometimes the people with sharp tongues have the kindest hearts," Ami said. "My sister is like that. She is the one who takes care of my children for me. Ah, I haven't seen them in months." She looked forlorn for a moment, but then she went on. "But she also has a mouth...but she's kind. I think that the kindness of some people is hard for them to say, so they put it in their actions, and their tongues just don't know how to match up."

Sakura sighed. "Well, I also know that she'd never take revenge on their Village. She's very against vengeance and so are all her little disciples. And she's forcing the ninja not to be for it either. They came back here to help you all."

"You'd be wise not to tell me too much about it." Ami held up her hand. "If they ask me, it's better if I really don't know. I'm not the best liar." She rubbed her head. "And they can threaten me to talk."

"If you're as nice as you're trying to seem," Sakura said, "then why are you a bandit?"

Ami's face hardened almost as much as the other Stone for a moment, but then she looked up at the dimly lit ceiling sadly.

"My shame," she said, "is that I gave into it. Yet I still don't know what else I could have done. My husband was a much better ninja than I was, and he made a reasonable income. We weren't rich by any means, but we got by. The War would have ruined us, likely, even if he'd not died, but he did, and I couldn't get work...and for weeks my children were getting hungrier and hungrier, and we ran out of things to trade for food--and no one else had food anyway. My sister did her best, but she couldn't sell enough things either. No one had any money... Well, I stole at first only when we were just so miserable I felt it was forgivable, that people would understand...and it doesn't seem fair that some people who had reserves because they had more foresight weren't willing to share them. I mean, you can see so many children going hungry and still say that it's not your concern? I suppose that's how we are, but, when it was my children, I didn't feel that way."

Sakura wondered at how much that echoed what Shine had had to say about the ninja and their views of charity, her thought that they never saw any use in it.

It was true, they didn't, usually.

"I guess I was clever at stealing enough to catch someone's attention," Ami said. "I didn't know it, but some of my fellow shinobi had already started working for the bandits. Then they mentioned me to the boss, and he paid me a visit. He made it sound simple enough. Help them and I get enough of a cut to feed all of us. He said that they hit several villages so that no one was devastated enough to be wiped out. I fell for it because I was too desperate to use my head to see how easy that could be a trap. Then I got into it, and I found out you can't get out. They think you'll turn them in, so they make sure you can't. They threaten your family. They don't let you leave them. All of us are each other's guards as much as we're allies. No escape."

She laughed a little bitterly. "I wanted to save up and then leave. That's when I found out I couldn't. I can't believe I didn't see that coming."

Sakura didn't either, but she didn't know that she would have been less desperate in this woman's position... It sounded awful.

Sakura was not the sympathetic type usually, but she was not callous to the idea of starving children and being forced to join a rogue bandit tribe. What ninja wouldn't have found that horrifying who was at all loyal to their Village?

"But the worst part," Ami said, in a more ghostly tone, "was that they got my son into it. I had taught him a bit of Earth Style, and his father did, too. He's not bad at it for a beginner. And they needed all the help they could get. The scoundrels like to use young boys. No one suspects them of anything worse than swiping a few things in the market. He wanted to help me, and before I could tell him not to, they had him running for them. Then they wouldn't let us see each other." She made a fist. "As if the rest wasn't enough, they stole my son from me."

Now she was angry.

Sakura actually understood that feeling.

Ami then looked up at her. "And now both of us are trapped. I supposed that, once a group like yours decides to finish the tribe, we'd be killed along with all the rest. But when I heard that you're kinder and more merciful than others, I had hoped that, if I helped you, you would spare us...or at least spare him. He can go back to his aunt...and find some way to survive. Anything is better than this. This isn't living, this is slavery. Only, tell him to swear on my life that he will never steal again. My mother always told me crime doesn't pay, and if I'd listened to her, I wouldn't be here."

Sakura swallowed. "My mother also told me the same thing," she said weakly. "But...uh...no need to beg me. The other won't kill you. And if I tell them you asked, they'll help you escape for sure. I mean, they're really almost stupid about how willing they are to do it. If you're telling me the truth."

"I am," Ami said.

"But you couldn't help me at all?" Sakura said. "I mean...the pill was nice, but I need to get out here before my jutsu times out, or I might not even be able to tell them you helped me at all...because I'll be in a coma."

That jarred Ami considerably.

Sakura hoped that scared her enough to work... Maybe she had learned a few things from the DJs, against her will. She didn't think she'd have thought to say that before.